definitely maybe
by GirlWithAmberEyes
Summary: Emily has been distant from all of her friends and everything that would remember her of A or Maya, she went on a very different path from expected, after three years, with a life of her own she tries to regain those friendships, and along with that comes way more than she could expect. Can the new people in her life get along with the ones from her past? Definitely maybe.
1. Three years later

**A/N:** It's set three years after the end of season two and Paige and Emily never actually happened during school years. This is my first fic and I have no idea if I'm doing it right, or if you're going to be able to picture the story as I have but I do hope you enjoy and any kind of review would be greatly appreciated.

**definitely maybe**

Chapter 1: Three years later

"Can I sit here?" a girl asked to Emily, who was studying for her finals at the college's library

"Sure, I was leaving anyway" She answered without actually looking at the the girl and starting to gather her stuff

"I didn't mean to make you go away like that, this table is big enough for two, don't you think?"

"It sure... " Emily stopped when she looked up and saw how beautiful the girl was and strangely familar, tall and thin with a gorgeous hair, Emily was feeling little regret deep down for leaving "...is, but I really have to go" Emily actually forced those words to come out of her mouth, what was she thinking, she had a beautiful girlfriend waiting for her right outside the library, but well she wasn't blind right.

"If you say so" the girl looked a bit confused but started preparing her stuff to study "hum... thank you, I guess"

"you're welcome" Emily said already leaving.

Outside the library Clara waited for Emily by her car, she grinned when she saw her girlfriend walking out of the library

"Hey beautiful!" She said going on Emily's way to help her with the books, when she reached her she gave a quick kiss before getting the books from Emily "every time you come out of this place you have more books than before, does that mean your studies are great?"  
"I wish, I'm actually knowing less than I knew before" Said a pretty upset Emily  
"Honey, I don't think that's possible, specially talking about you" She said while putting Emily's books in the car.

"That's very sweet of you to say, but not true" Emily said walking into the car "I still don't know how I got myself into this major"

"that's pretty easy, you asked for a paper and you wrote down some information and you also wrote there Engineer at the major part" She said laughing

"very funny" she said rolling her eyes at her girlfriend's joke

"I know right?" She laughed even harder when she saw the frown on Emily's head "Chill out babe, you're gonna ace the finals like you did before and like you're always will" she kissed her on the cheek before leaving the parking lot on their way to Hazel's.

They were almost arriving when Clara started

"So..., I know I promised to stick around for the whole day but something..."

"something what?" Emily asked without letting her finish the sentence.

"...came up"

"something always comes up Clara, you just arrived last night, and promissed" Emily was pretty upset

"I know, but remenber that play I told you?" She asked parking the car

" The one where you did't try out because one of your teachers said you weren't ready and I told you to send him to hell?"

"Yeah, that one" she said remembering that Emily at the time wanted to go the teacher's office yell at him for that "well I followed your advice..." emily rose an eyebrow "...to ignore him, and not the one to send him to hell" she quickly added.

"continue..."

"well, you remeber recording my first play right?

"there's a lot to remember here, of course I do, your mother made me send her a copy"

"so.. I sent it to the director of the play, and I got the part" She finished waiting foe Emily's reaction

"You did it? honey that's awesome!"She said quickly removing the seat belt and getting off the car so she could hug Clara, who was doing the same. Emily ran to Clara and hugged her pretty strong but Clara didn't care, she loved this. "Why didn't you tell me before?" She asked while both were walking their way to Hazel's .

"because I didn't know they just called me like an hour ago, and I've been dying to tell you, I wanted you to be the first one to know about it"

Emily didn't know what to say so she kissed Clara, who was caught by surprise "Where did that come from?" She asked in surprise "Not that I'm complaining"

"I'm really proud of you, congratulations honey" she said hugging her again

"Thanks, so you're ok that I have to come back? There is a meeting in... like two hours" She said looking down at her feet

"You're crazy? How are you going to arrive there on time? Ok then lunch is over" She said turning around and walking out of Hazel's

"What? Why?"

"Well you have a meeting and you need to be on time, so you're gonna drop me off at my place and you're gonna go as fast as the law allows and on your way you're gonna stop really fast to grab something to eat, FAST ok, so let's go"

"wait Emily, what about your lunch, our lunch?

"We can have it another time, now let's go, what are you waiting?" She said when she realized that Clara hasn't moved and they were yelling at each other because of the distance." Clara started to run at Emily's direction and kissed her very passionately and only stopped because Emily pushed her away to breath.

"I love you Emily"  
"I love you too, but now get in the car"

Clara drove very fast to Emily's place and Emily was leaving the car when she saw Clara taking off her seat belt

"What are you doing?"  
"Getting out of the car to kiss you goodbye?" She said not understanding why that would be a big deal

"no way" Emily said kissing Clara "goodbye and call me later"

"not enough" Clara said pulling Emily back in the car and kissing her again thins time not rushing "that's much better"

"bye honey" Emily said leaving the car  
"bye"

When the car was out of sight, Emily turned around and stared at the building that she lived along with two other girls from her college. She lived on the third floor, in a three bedroom apartment, one for each. After sharing the bedroom in her first year she decided to never do that again, and the other two were way better than her roommate. Right now nobody was home, Alicia was at one of her classes and Jessica was at the cafe near the building where she worked.

When Emily entered her room she saw that she had forgotten her computer on, and there were a bunch of facebook messages of people who though that she was online, she hated when that happened, she started reading them and one from Spencer got her attention. Spencer was saying that she wanted to come visit. Emily picked up her phone as fast as she could to call Spencer. It's been three years after that whole A thing ended and her first girlfriend was murdered, after that Emily pushed herself away from her best friends back then, she just wanted to forget everything that would remember those days. She had to admit that over the months and years, they were practically strangers and Emily did miss them but wasn't sure how to get closer to them after all this time, maybe this chance of seeing Spencer could be the start she was waiting.

"Hello, Spencer?" Emily asked over the phone a little guilty considering she didn't call them many times over the years, maybe that's why Spencer chose to leave a message on facebook instead of calling her.

"Can you believe that I almost forgot your voice?" Gosh, Emily missed her friends

"Actually I can, and I'm sorry, I know it's my fault" She finally said

"We can talk about it at lunch tomorrow, this is… if you want" Emily's face lighted up when she heard that

"sure, where do you wanna eat?" She spoke so fast she questioned if Spencer would understand

"Well, you're the one who lives there, you decide, I trust you that much"

"Okay, there is a place here that I always go, It's called Hazel's"

"Is it easy to find?"

"yeah, you can ask anyone, it's pretty popular around here"

"hazel's it is then, see you tomorrow Em" and then they turned off the phones

At the moment she turned off her cell phone she realized, that she missed the girls way more that she'd imagined, good thing that she would see Spencer tomorrow, she actually couldn't explain how she could let this distance get so big, she was so focused on starting a new life away from all that confusion and pain that she also got away from the good things she had, but that was about to change. It was a good time to officially leave the past in the past, and recover the amazing friendships she had. There was definitely many things to talk about.


	2. The past meeting the Present for lunch

A/N: Thanks for the reviews! I didn't want this chapter to be so long but as I started writing I couldn't stop. I tried to give more information and I don't know if I did at least ok, so let me know if it was ok or not right? And also let me know if there's something missing, any details that you guys want ok?

Chapter 2: The past meeting the Present for lunch

"beep beep beep" That was the sound of Emily's alarm clock that she had programmed to go off at 7 a.m. But she was already up and all dressed, she had many things to do and today she was going to have lunch with Spencer. She was almost finishing her make up when Jessica entered her room.

"I'm leaving for work, do you want to go and grab something before going to your classes?" She asked, Jessica was the type of girl that anyone would misjudge by the appearance, she was thin, tall and had these amazing blue eyes and that type of hair like from the Chinese people, so straight that not even a pony tail would last and sher tried. She had this serious posture, among the three that lived together, she was the last one, and Emily saw her for the first time she thought that Jessica remembered her of Kate, Hanna's father's step daughter except that once you meet Jessica you see that she's very nice and totally unaware of her beauty, Emily and Alicia would always have a great time watching men drooling over her not being noticed, she never noticed those things and would always complain that nobody looked at her, she could be such a drama queen when she wanted.

"Let me guess, we're out of coffee?" Emily said

"You're so smart" Jessica confirmed Emily's thought.

"Ok, I go with you, just let me get my thing for class and I'm done" She said. A couple of minutes later they were almost leaving the apartment when a hysterical Alicia opened her bedroom door. Funny image to see, she had these brown eyes that every time she got nervous it looked like they were about to pop out of her face, she had a problem with her body as well, of course the problems were in her mind, she had a great body, neither fat nor thin and she was the shortest of the girls but not too short.

"Careful not to break the door Al" Jessica tried to light up her mood, it was a very hard thing to do, especially in the morning, Alicia was always stressed. Last month she and her hair cut very short because she didn't want to get stressed with her hair anymore, and it was a beautiful long straight hair, needless to say that she regretted this as soon as she got home that day telling Emily and Jessica that they should never let her do that again.

"Why didn't any of you wake me up?" Said a pretty upset and anger Alicia

"You usually ask for that the night before and you didn't say anything last night" Said Emily

"I agree on that, but if you want we can wait for you to grab a cup of coffee with us" She said carefully looking at Emily to see what she thought and hoping that Alicia would drop the subject

"Great idea, do you want to go?" Emily added

"Okay, I'll take a shower and get dressed really fast and we're off"

"We'll be here" Said Jessica sitting on the couch and turning the TV on "Wanna bet that her fast will be one hour?"

"45 minutes, who loses pays for the coffee, deal?"

"Deal"

"So Emily, how's Clara?"

"She's great, she's just got her first big role in a play, the first meeting was yesterday"

"That's awesome! Send her congratulations for me will you?"

"Sure…" She was caught by surprise when she saw a picture of Hanna on the magazine by Jessica's side "Can I see that please?" She pointed to the magazine

"Sure, I bought it yesterday to see what was happening in the famous world, you know, to talk to the clients at the cafeteria, they talk a lot about this things and I'm always lost"

"right" She said not really interested, she opened on the right page, there was a picture of Hanna and Marcus, the names were below the picture, and apparently Hannah was studying to become an actress just like Clara was, and she was in a very successful play, according to the article. So that's what happened to Hanna, Emily was very happy for her friend, she should've imagined that Hanna would follow something like that considering all the drama she used to make back in high school. Apparently Emily took a while in her thought because Jessica was snapping her finger on her face.

"Heeeeey, are going with us?" She said already up and with Alicia by her side.

"Right, ok" She said standing up "I got lost in my thought, I guess"

"You guess? I'm sure" Jessica said making one of her funny faces that always made Emily laugh. "By the way, Coffee is on you, look at the watch"

"Damn it" She said when she looked at her watch and saw that Alicia did take one hour to get ready, and that because she was late

"What girls? Are you late because of me?" A confused Alicia entered the conversation

"Nothing" Both said, causing them to laugh

"Did anyone tell you girls are crazy?" Said Alicia heading to the door "Are going or not?"

"Right behind you" Emily said following her path and Jessica behind her.

After the coffee Jessica stayed at the cafeteria, Alicia went to her class and Emily went to hers, she was already late thanks to Alicia. Arriving there she quickly saw one of her classmates and joined him.

"Did I miss much?" She asked to Lucas, he was a football player that at first approached Emily interested in her as more than a friend, acting like a jerk at the beginning since every time he tried something she would push him away, but she had to admit that he was a nice guy, eventually she told him that she was gay. He didn't expect that but understood, they became good friends after that. At the time Emily didn't know Clara so Lucas would always help her with the undesired guys at parties, not that she couldn't do it herself but it was a lot easier with him. He was pretty handsome and confident, more than needed actually.

"What do you think?" He asked with a very bored face

"Good, did he ask for the papers?"

"He just said to live them on his table when the class ends"

"Okay then"

"So, what are you plans for lunch?"

"I'm meeting a friend at Hazel's"  
"I'm going there too, the football team is going to meet there, is Clara going?"

"No, she's busy. When is your next game?" They kept doing these small questions until the class was over. It was one of the worst classes she had. At the end of their classes Emily still had an hour before the time she was supposed to meet Spencer and she had to talk to a professor.

"Thank God it's over" Lucas said standing up "Do you want a ride to Hazel's?"

"No thanks, I have my car here and I have to look for Professor Simons"

"Okay see you in our analysis class tomorrow right? Try not to be late, these classes are very boring without company" He said leaving Emily behind laughing at his commentaries.

After talking to her teacher, Emily decided to sit on one of the thousand benches around campus and read for a while, but there was at least one person in each and she couldn't help but notice that one of them was the girl from the library. There she was, sitting reading like Emily was about to and she definitely made this scene a very beautiful one to watch, the girl had this long hair that was in such a rhythm with the wind that it almost sounded like a picture. Emily went on her direction, not sure why though.

"Can I sit here?" She asked politely

"Sure, I have to go anyway" The girl didn't even look up

"Fair enough" Emily couldn't help but laugh at the answer the girl gave her, her commentary must've gotten the girl's attentions because she automatically looked up, showing an amazing pair of brown eyes, for a second that sounded like a year Emily got lost in them. "Are you sure it's not my fault?" Emily asked coming to reality

"Why would it be?"The girl looked a little puzzled, Emily felt a little said that she didn't remember her

"The library?" Emily tried to push her memory

"Oh right" She laughed when she finally understood the irony of the scene "No, definitely no, I do need to go" She said standing up and leaving "Nice seeing you again though"

"Sure" She said sitting. Emily tried to read but she wasn't able to, the girl wouldn't leave her mind, why? Was it because she was beautiful, not to say perfect, she loved Clara, maybe because she looked familiar, that's it. She dueled over this and almost lost track of time, she had now five minutes to arrive at Hazel's, and is Spencer didn't change she hated waiting. Emily ran to her car and when she arrived there she was relieved that Spencer hadn't arrived. Right when she entered she saw the football team and waved at them, but didn't talk to them, she went directly to an empty table to wait for Spencer. It had passed about fifteen minutes when Emily saw her high school friend entering the place, she waved so Spencer could see her. Spencer hadn't changed at all, same appearance and style.

"Oh my God! Three years can look like more than ten, tell me how that's possible" Said Spencer hugging Emily.

"I don't know but I agree" Emily answered hugging Spencer stronger than before.

"Do you still have the same car?" Spencer asked making Emily frown

"Yep, why?"

"There is a weird girl looking very intensively at it at the parking lot"

"Weird how?"

"I don't know, she was short and had these colorful clothes on, too much information on one person if you ask me, and she also is red-haired which adds to the colors on her clothes, she remembered me of those cartoon characters you know?" She asked Emily who was trying to picture the image

"I'm not sure…" She believed that there was a great chance of the girl being Clara, but what would she be doing there without calling her? Her thoughts were interrupted by Clara who was entering the room searching for Emily but stopped once she realized that Emily had company, and it was someone that she had never seen before, she calmed down and walked on their direction. By the look on Spencer's face Emily could tell that Clara was the girl she was talking about, she had no fault, she didn't know Clara neither did Clara know her.

Once Emily got into college she decided to live a life away from everything related to the past and that included everyone besides family, of course, she had done a pretty good job becoming a new person, every time someone asked her about something from high school or from that time, she would find a way around the question without actually answering it. In the beginning she felt it was necessary to do it, to avoid the pain and then the months went by and people stopped asking about it, Clara would rise a question about it once in a while and Emily answered in the most vague way possible.

When she agreed to have lunch with Spencer she didn't consider Clara, they hadn't spoken after she went to her meeting and now Emily wasn't sure how to handle the situation. Clara had no idea about any of the girls and Spencer clearly had no idea about Clara.

"Hi babe" Said Clara approaching them. She gave Emily a quick kiss before turning to Spencer making it very obvious to know that she wanted information about the girl sitting with her girlfriend.

"Honey, this is Spencer an Old friend of mine, from high school" She said pointing to Spencer "Spencer, this is my girlfriend Clara" The look Spencer had at this point, was hilarious, at least for Emily that understood the situation. You could tell that Spencer was ashamed and confused and beneath it all Emily could see that she was thinking how could she date a "weird" girl like Clara, Spencer's opinion on Clara were very clear and Emily didn't care. The first time she met her she also thought that Clara was a strange girl but eventually she turned out to be a very good company and later sounded natural for them to go out and start dating.

For Emily this relationship wasn't about 'I can't live without you' or 'Is she thinking about me?' it was something natural, easy and good. Clara made her feel great and that was exactly what she was looking for.

"Why don't you join us for lunch?" Asked Emily "I didn't know you were coming today"  
"I was going to surprise you and on my way to your apartment I saw your car here, I'd love to join you if there's no problem" She added looking at Spencer

"Not that I know" Spencer said as fast as she could, if she could disappear that would be a great time for it.

"Okay them, did you order already?"

"No, Spencer had just arrived, not even 10 minutes before you"

"Great, I'm going to the bathroom, can you order for me?" She made that puppy face that Emily loved, that girl was awesome with expressions, no wonder she wanted to be an actress.

"The usual?"

"Always, be right back"

"I have no idea where to hide, I am so sorry Em" Spencer said like she was letting all the air inside her out. All Emily could do was laugh, it wasn't every day that you could see Spencer like this.

"Don't worry, I thought the same thing when I met her, but she's great, you'll see"  
"I bet she is" Spencer was still in shock "and she has quite a presence"

"Yeah, it comes with the profession, she wants to be an actress"

"Can I get your orders?" The waiter approached. They ordered and continued talking about Clara, until the moment she arrived.

"So Clara, tell me about Emily in these past few years"

"She's great" She looked at Emily and saw the she was already getting red. "But I cannot tall for all these years, we've been together for less than a year and she doesn't really talk about the past, even if the past was yesterday"

"Not that much!" Emily complained "I'm just not into certain memories" she was sure Spencer would understand her right away

"Are you still swimming Em?" Emily froze on that one, if there was something she missed from her old life, it was the swimming

"Swimming?" Clara asked in a surprised tone

"I used to swim on our school team" Emily tried not make a big deal out of it

"She was THE swimmer" Spencer didn't see Emily's expression asking her to drop the subject

"Is that so?" Clara looked at Emily for an answer

"But I stopped as soon as I graduated"

"Why?" both Spencer and Clara asked

"come on guys, I don't want to talk about it" she tried

"Why didn't you tell me?" Clara forced

"It wasn't a part of my life when we met, there was no reason to bring that up" It wasn't a total lie. Clara didn't like it though.

"Here's your food" Emily couldn't thank enough for the interruption. She didn't know how to take this conversation and tell everything new to Spencer without talking about everything old, and she didn't want to get into many details about that. Right now everything was simple, the only complications were her math problems for the finals.

Lunch went on with light topics such as, majors (there was a great debate on wether Emily hated or not Math back in high school), jobs and so on

"So, you don't swim anymore, you're studying something that you didn't like in high school…"

"I liked it, I didn't love it, but I liked it" She interrupted

"Whatever, and you're used to going to parties. Did I miss anything?" Spence was having a hard time believing everything.

"You make it sound wrong"

"Not wrong, just unexpected"

"That's because you didn't see her dancing or trying to dance" Clara added

"That's hard to imagine" said Spencer trying to picture it

"Ok, are we done talking about me?"

"Never" Said Clara "I only came for….." She was interrupted by Spencer's cell

"Sorry girls, but I have to get this" She said leaving the table

"lunch, I have to be back soon" She finished "By the way, did you do all that on high school?" She said now that Spencer was away

"it's not much, will you come this weekend?"

"you, a swimmer? I had no clue, looks like you changed a lot"

"It happens right?"

"Sure" Clara wasn't sure what to think, why didn't Emily tell her those things? It wasn't anything important, apparently. "I call at night?

"Make sure to do it" She said kissing Clara, they paid everything and met Spencer outside.

"Nice meeting you Spencer, but I have to go"

"Nice meeting you too Clara, bye"

"Okay, Why does it look like she doesn't know anything about you that matters?"

"She knows about me now, that's what matters"

"Do actually believe that?"

"Sure I do, Why not?"

"She doesn't ask about your ex-girlfriends?"

"She does and I answer as briefly as possible"

"Where did you get this engineer thing?"

"I don't know Spencer, I did the first thing that came to my mind, I didn't want to think"

"That is so not you"

"You don't know me now" that sounded colder than it was supposed to

"I can see that, do you think you have room for me and the girls in this 'now'?"

"Sure, as long as you don't question my decisions. I was really lost back then"

"Okay, I'll be quiet, but you have to stop pushing us away"

"Looks like we both have promises to keep" and Spencer nodded. They talked a little more and then said their goodbyes, they decided to meet at least one a month.

On her way to the library, where Emily always was in the afternoons, she decided to stop for a cup of coffee near the library. She had a lot to think about, she entered the cafeteria and sit on one of the tables when a girl asked to join her

"Okay, that's a little repetitive don't you think?" The girl said, and Emily looked up and smiled

"well, I'm still waiting for my coffee, but if you want you can sit here"

"not leaving? That's new" both laughed

"Will you find strange if I told you that you look very familiar to me?"

"I was wondering how long would it take for you to remember me"

"remember you? So I do know you" That explained something

"I'm Paige we used to swim on the same team"

"Paige? Oh My God, how did I not remember you?" Right she was a really good swimmer, one of the best on the team "Why didn't you say something before?"

"Well, the first time you were on a rush and then I was so…"

"So you study here too?"

"Yeah, I got a scholarship for swimming; I was surprised when I found out that you weren't swimming anymore"

"Yeah I decided to stop" How many time would she answer this question? She was starting to doubt herself

"That's a shame, you look good though"

"You too Paige" More than good Emily thought. Paige was so different, confident. She didn't talk much in high school if Emily remembered right. Maybe Emily didn't pay much attention to her because she was way more beautiful than she remembered. A group of guys next to them were talking about a party on campus this weekend, and Emily couldn't help but ask "Are you going?"

"Not into parties, but my friends are pretty excited about this one"

"Now and then I go to a party, not a big fan but I enjoy them"

"So you're going to this one?"

"Probably, but I still have to talk to my girlfriend" Right, she had a girlfriend that she just had lunch with

"Right, well maybe we'll bump into each other there, I'm coffee is ready, I gotta go. Bye Emily"

"Bye Paige" What the hell was she thinking, she had a bunch of finals next week, of course she wasn't going to this party, why didn't she say so?

The day went on without much happening, Emily finished her studies and went home to eat and watch TV with the girls, they weren't really close friends but they got along just fine. Before Sleeping Emily talked to Clara on the phone, things on her play were insane, apparently they were going to start rehearsing next week, which meant that she wasn't going to visit Emily for a while. Emily didn't even tell her about the party, she wasn't going anyway, but the idea of meeting Paige there sounded almost tempting, there was something new about her, and Emily wanted to find out what it was.


	3. Lost memories

A/N: Thanks again for the reviews and for the having the time to read this story!

: I was aiming for that, glad you thought so

ov4arenko: There will definitely be more interaction between them

Chapter 3: Lost memories

The weekend arrived pretty fast considering that everything Emily did was studying and eating. The day before Alicia had told the girls that she was going to visit her parents during the weekend, so it was only Jessica and Emily.

"I'm officially bored" said Jessica looking at Emily who was studying in the living room while Jessica was trying to find something good on TV. "Come on, let's do something, please?" She got really close to Emily to force her to stop reading.

"I can't, I have an exam on Monday and a presentation on Wednesday"

"It's impossible to study more than you already have, just because Clara can't come this weekend it doesn't mean you can't go out, I'm sure she won't mind"

"It's not about Clara, it's about my exams, I don't go out only with her, just this week I had lunch with an old friend, well… Clara was there but it wasn't planned"

"You call 'lunch' going out?" Jessica asked in disbelief

"Yeah, I mean, it was OUT, wasn't it?" Emily knew she would lose this argument

"Ok, you need an intervention, tomorrow you and I are going to party"

"I said I can't"

"I don't care, you seriously need to have fun, and you're going. End of discussion." She said heading back to the TV. Leaving Emily thinking that maybe she did need to go out.

Emily was having a hard time studying, after she met Spencer she has been questioning her decision to become and Engineer. Every time she read an exercise she asked herself why she was doing this. All of a sudden she closed the books and stoop up. And went to her room, she opened her wardrobe and got a bag that she hadn't used in years as Jessica watched very confused. Emily headed to the door

"Where are you going?"

"For a walk" she answered without looking back

"And you need a special bag for that?" but Emily was already gone

Walking she found herself asking what she was doing, why she got her old swimming clothes, she didn't even know if the pool was open on a Saturday night or if any student could use, probably no. Her thought were confirmed when she arrived there and found a closed gate. Now she could go back and pretend that this crazy idea never crossed her mind, and she turned back see saw someone coming, she deeply hoped it wasn't an officer or someone responsible for the pool.

"Emily?" Getting closer, Emily could see it was Paige, God she was everywhere now, Emily thought.

"Hi Paige" She said trying to think about a great excuse for being there.

"What are you doing here?" Of course she would ask this, but Emily had hoped she wouldn't because she didn't know what to say

"I actually don't know" She said uncertain of her own words, what was she saying? She wasn't supposed to tell this, she was supposed to invent something, anything, true or not

"Do you want to enter?" She asked pointing to the gate "I have the keys, if you want"

"It's ok, I have no idea why I came here anyway" liar, but she wasn't sure if she was lying to Paige or to herself. "I was just going for a walk and it led me here." Another lie, was there no end for this?

"Going for a walk with your old bag from swimming practice?" She said pointing the Emily's bag with the symbol of their old team. 'Crap' Emily thought.

"Fine, I did want to come here, but I don't know, I'm…" Emily couldn't explain, she didn't know what to say.

"Are you Ok?" Paige sounded concerned, no wonder why, Emily was probably looking insane.

"I think so, can I see the pool?" Maybe if she saw the pool she would understand why she went there, at least she was hoping for that

"Sure" Paige said opening the gate. The pool was huge and beautiful; it has been a while since Emily had seen a pool like this, during these three years she had only been to those pools for fun, in houses and clubs. An Olympic pool was very different. "Do you want to go for a swim?" She looked at Emily but got no answer, Emily was lost in her own thoughts but was soon waken from them with a waving hand in front of her

"What? Sorry" She automatically said

"Do you want to go for a swim?" Paige said slowly

"I don't think so, I just wanted to know the place I guess" She started walking around

"I am, just be careful not to be seen ok, I can be here if I say I was training, but you can only be here when scheduled ok" She said taking her clothes of and revealing her swimsuit and a perfect body, how come Emily never noticed before. They never really talked in school but they trained together. Emily's memory went back to high school trying to find something about this girl but nothing important came, they never talked out of practice and during practice they would only say 'great job' or 'good timing', Paige was always so distant from everything and Emily didn't pay her much attention, and she didn't know why, what she did know is that at this moment she wanted to get into the pool with her and remember the freedom that water used to give her.

"Why are you doing this Paige? Letting me come in here, we were never close or anything and I'm pretty sure that I looked like an idiot out there" She said turning her body to Paige who already heading to the pool.

"I don't think there has to be a reason, you were out there, wanted to see the pool, I had the key, and just because you looked…" She measured her words "weird out there, it doesn't make you a stranger or dangerous, plus sometimes a company suits well" she jumped into the pool. Emily went to the bleachers and watched Paige swim.

She was amazing in the water, she sounded more natural in the water than a fish and she was very fast, her thoughts were interrupted by her cell letting her know that a message had arrived, and it was from Jessica

_What happened? Your walk is taking_

_ More time than usual, and I'm starting _

_to get worried._

She smiled and answered

_Nothing to worry about, I stopped _

_ To talk to a friend, I'll be home soon_

She stood up and took a look around, she started to remember all the times the won a competition and the audience. A great feeling came together with the memories. It was good to be there, she started to realize that she had given up more than she thought, she ended up forgetting things that had nothing to do with A or Maya or even the girls. This was only about her, what she loved to do, then she looked to the bleachers and froze, an image came to her mind, it was Maya sitting on the bleachers of her old school, she was happy and waving to her from there, she couldn't hear what Maya was saying but was able to read her lips, she was saying 'good luck'. Emily felt a kick in her guts, sadness over this loss. She would never get over her death, but she accepted and moved on, but she paid a price for that, and maybe, just maybe that price was too much, unnecessary even. This sadness now, was the proof that she couldn't run from this forever, just before this feeling she was great remembering her days as a swimmer. She shook her head to get this thought away and headed to the gate, she wanted to say good bye and thanks to Paige but she didn't want to interrupt her, so she went home.

"There you are, if you're going to take more than two hours, you shouldn't say you're going for a walk" Jessica said

"Hey, I thought Alicia was off for the weekend" Emily said smiling

"What?"

"You sounded just like her"

"No, I didn't" She protested like a kid, and they both started to laugh. "Fine, I'm going to bed then"

"Me too" She said going to her room. When she closed the door she realized that she had forgotten her purse at the pool, she grabbed her car keys and left. Arriving there she found Paige locking the gate and carrying her bag.

"You came to say good bye?"

"I didn't say before because I didn't want to interrupt you, you looked so focused. But I actually came back to get my bag, that I forgot" Emily explained.

"I was thinking about walking around with it for a couple of days since we've bumping into each other a lot lately"

"Thanks" Emily got her bag from her hands "for this and for letting me enter there"

"It was nothing, really" She said "I should get going now" She turned

"Wait" Emily said and she stopped "Do you want a ride?"

"No, thanks, I can go walking"

"Please? It's my way of saying thank you"

"Alright then" She finally agreed. They entered in the car and Paige gave Emily the instructions to get to her house.

"So, do you live alone?"Emily asked

"Yep, I didn't have a great experience dividing the room during my first year, so I told my parents that living with someone else was interfering in my studies. He rented a house the next year. He doesn't like when something gets in the way of my studies or practice." Paige told her

"I can see that"

"What about you? Do you live alone or with your girlfriend?" That made Emily choke a little, live with her girlfriend? Not an option in her mind

"How do you know I have a girlfriend?"

"You mentioned the other day in the cafeteria"

"oh, right, I did. And no I don't live with her, and I don't live alone either. I live with two other girls from college" She said. "Ok, is this it?" She stopped the car

"Yep, that's it. Thanks for the ride" Paige said taking off her seat belt

"The least I could do." She looked at Paige who was leaving "Are you still going to the party?"

"Sure, and you, did you decide to go?" Paige turned to her

"I think so, my roommate kind of convinced me" Their eyes met when she answered this. Emily had no idea how perfect Paige's eyes were, but she could see worry in there, she couldn't really define.

"hum… good I guess I'll see there then" Paige broke it off, clearly disturbed. "bye Emily, and thanks again"

"Bye" Emily was still with Paige's eyes in her mind, but suddenly those eyes were replaced by a pair of green eyes that she recognized as Clara's. That was her mind remembering her that she had a girlfriend, but she wasn't into Paige, she was intrigued and those were completely different things. She debated herself on that all the way to her apartment and also when going to bed, and for the first time in ages she dreamed about her old self, with her four friends waiting for her after a competition to celebrate. She dreamed about what her life would be if she hadn't changed her plans, if she hadn't pushed her friends away.


	4. Blind dates and a deal

**A/N: **Thanks everybody for the reviews and thanks for those who marked this story as favorite. 

and ov4arenko Trying to do what you asked I kind of divided the chapter, First part: Paige; Second part: Emily and the third I mixed them. And also ov4arenko, it'll be her to grasp it okay

hRcK1224, I'm glad you loved.

And please let me know if it's confusing or not, okay?

Chapter 4: Blind dates and a deal

'Nothing like swimming to relax' Paige thought after Emily had dropped her by her place. Of course the company wasn't expected, but nothing messes with her when she's in the water not even a very strange Emily, looking around like seeing ghosts. A small red light called her attention, it was the answering machine.

"You have one new message" She heard while putting her things on the table

_ Hi Paige, so I talking to a friend of mine and guess what? _

_ She has a son that studies there too, so she said that he _

_ Was going to a party on your campus this Sunday and_

_ I thought that maybe you could go and meet him there_

_ It would be really nice if you two could get along._

_ Anyhow I told her that you're going, and I sent him_

_ A picture of you so he could find you. Miss you. Bye_

Paige recognized her mother's voice just from the 'hi'. One more blind date, how many sons of friends can her mother find in her college? This was the fifth, just this month. She was able to escape from two of them; the third and the fourth. The first one was a disaster, the guy was a total dush, he thought that he was the best thing on the planet, only talked about himself. Paige pretended to get food poisoned just to go home, the date lasted about two hours and it looked like ten, he tried to talk to her after that and she just ignored. The second was better, intelligent, handsome and really nice, so was his boyfriend, that he introduced to her asking not to tell her mother because her mother would tell his mother and according to him a third world war could start for that. Funny thing is that they actually became good friends, Josh was a very great guy. They would meet at least once a week and they always laughed about how their mothers wanted them to be together. He would say that if he wasn't gay he would totally date her, but she wasn't sure she would date him, he was nice and all but it just didn't sound right. She told herself it was because he was gay and she couldn't picture him otherwise. After him, she was able to avoid the other two dates her mother created. This meant that she couldn't get out of this one, well she was already thinking about going to the party anyway.

"Thanks mom" Paige ironically said to the answering machine. She took a shower and prepared a quick snack while thinking about Emily, she lived with two more girls and she lived alone. She loved the silence but sometimes she would think that a company would suit well, her roommate during the first year was opposite from her, they would always fight over every little thing, from loud music to cleaning. Paige was a very organized person, she liked everything in its place. When she first moved to this house she love the fact that she could put something in place and it would still be there when she looked for it. She wasn't the popular type but because she was a part of the swimming team she had to socialize once in a while, go to parties or lunch with the team, these type of things and if it was a party she would always drag Josh along, and this is what she was going to do, she will call him to go to the party with her. She finished this thought already getting her phone. She reached the voice mail, of course, it was Saturday night after all, she just left him a message telling about the party and the blind date. After that she decided to go to bed, by the moment she closed her eyes she saw Emily's eyes and she had no idea why. But wasn't able to get them out of her mind after that. She was acting so weird at the pool, like she was lost but she couldn't be, Paige remembered that Emily was always very decided when she came out and people started talking, she didn't care, at least that's the image she passed. Paige also remembered thinking that if it was with her she wouldn't have the guts to come out, much less tolerate the rumors, she admired Emily back then, but now if it weren't by Emily's appearance she wouldn't have recognized her. It was hard for Paige to fall asleep once she started thinking about all these things, but eventually she did.

"Rise and shine" Jessica woke up Emily

"Since when you're a morning person?" Emily asked covering her face with her blanket

"Today I have plans" Jessica said taking Emily's blanket away from her causing Emily to contract

"Great, go make them come true and let me sleep"

"I'm doing it, my plan is to get you to have some fun" She said

"I'm having a lot of fun in my dreams"

"Not today, go hit the shower 'cause we're going shopping!" Might as well, Emily thought while slowly getting out of bed. "I'm making breakfast ok"

"You seriously need to get a boyfriend to occupy you" but Jessica didn't listen to her, Emily didn't understand all the fuzz Jessica was doing about it, she has plenty of fun going out with Clara or Lucas. Jessica was so going to pay for waking up her at 9 a.m. on a Sunday.

"Okay, I give up, what are the plans for today?" Emily asked arriving in the kitchen in a better mood, shower always made her feel good

"I'm glad to hear that" Jessica said giving Emily her breakfast. "It's actually very simple, we're going to the mall o find some clothes for tonight's party"

"I'm not going to that party, you see we have very different ideas of fun"

"It's going to be fun, can you just give it a try?"

"I'll make you a deal, I go to the party and if it turns out not to be fun, you clean the apartment whenever is my turn for a month" Emily said raising her hands for the deal

"Ouch! That's rough" Jessica took a second to think, "but if you do have fun there, and there's no place for lying here, you'll be my driver for a month, do we have a deal?"

"deal" and the shook hands on that.

They actually had a good time shopping and bought a couple of clothes each, had lunch at the mall and talked a lot. They had never gone out just the two of them and Emily was glad they did it, Jessica was a great company. When they were leaving Emily's cell rang

"Hi babe" Emily greeted her girlfriend

"Hey sweetie, how are things?"

"Good, I'm actually going to a party tonight" She didn't know what to expect from Clara

"You, Party, without me?" She asked, Clara wasn't the type of not letting Emily do something without her, so Emily didn't understand the comment.

"Is there a problem?"

"No, not at all. It's just weird, I usually have to force you to go to a party and you're going to one by yourself." She had a point

"Not by myself, it was Jessica, she thinks I'm going to have fun, but I think otherwise."

"If I know that's not everything" Emily didn't knew Clara knew her so well

"If I don't have fun she gets to clean the house in my place for a month" She said to Clara while looking at Jessica

"and if you have fun?"

"Then I'll be her driver for month, but won't happen 'cause these college parties suck"

"We'll see that" Jessica said loud enough for Clara to hear

"Tell the result tomorrow ok"

"Okay, and the play, how is it?"

"It's amazing really, People here are great, but it won't be long"

"What do you mean?"

"We'll only have four presentations, one per week, lasting one month in the end"

"Well it's only the first one, you'll have plenty of others, I'm sure"

"That's sweet of you, but I have to go"

"Ok, don't forget to send me the tickets ok" Emily reminded her

"Sure, I miss you here though"

"I miss you too" Emily said before telling good bye. She did miss Clara, she was her best friend. It was hard for Emily to trust someone after all the lies in her high school. When she arrived in college, everything was so new, she was lost for a while, then she starting hanging out with people from her classes but it wasn't natural to talk to them, it was like she didn't belong there, then she met Lucas that after his attempts on getting her to date him finished, became her first real friend there. After a while she met Clara, and when Clara told her that she wanted to be more than friends Emily was surprised, she didn't think of her in the way, but she didn't want to lose one of the few friends she had, so she decided to give it a try, and it worked, even though for Emily it never sounded like a complete relationship, but she didn't think about it much, it wasn't like she wasn't happy with Clara, or wanted to date anyone else.

At the apartment Emily and Jessica were getting ready for the party.

"You can even say that the party was horrible in the end, but you have to admit that our outfits are awesome." Jessica said letting Emily take a look at her to see if everything was alright

"That's true, you're amazing in this dress" Jessica was wearing a tight dark blue dress with a white jacket on and she was wearing silver sandals, not too tall, she tall enough already

"Have I told you that you're the only person I know that can make jeans look better than any dress?" Emily was wearing a pair of jeans with high heel sandals, and a gorgeous long purple blouse with a leather belt matching her sandals and her handbag.

"No you haven't, and thank you, I think we're ready to go" She taking a look around to see if she had forgotten anything.

"I think we are." With that they left the apartment.

"Let's Party!" Jessica said when they saw the house where the party was taking place.

"Sounds like you've never been to one before" Emily said laughing at her friend

"Not in ages, and this is a party organized by the football team so it will probably be awesome, maybe that friend of yours is there, what was his name? Leo..?"

"Lucas"

"That's it, he's from the football team right?"

"Yeah, he mentioned the party when they first started to prepare it, but I didn't give much attention, wasn't planning on going"

"Things change my friend" Jessica said putting her arms around Emily when they got close to the entrance. It was a big house for students to live in, but if she recorded well, Lucas once told her that the football team would live all together in the same house, he was one of the few that didn't. It was an idea from his coach or something like that.

"So… I'm gonna grab a beer, do you want one?"

"No, I'm good, just please don't get too much drunk, I don't wanna carry you home"

"Not happening" Jessica said leaving her in the middle of the party. Emily didn't quite understand if the 'not happening' was for the not drunk part or the carry part, but she had a feeling that she would discover it soon. On the other side of the house Paige was trying very hard not to be found by her mother's friend's son, but it was difficult to hide from someone that you have no idea about the appearance, she was succeeding though, she had been for half an hour now and no one came to talk to her about her mother, only her teammates talked to her. She decided to stay in a corner where she had a pretty good view from the people at the party but at the same time easy to pass by unnoticed.

Emily now decided to drink, she was on the second beer, might as well try to enjoy it, she told herself while getting the first glass of beer.

"I'm on my third beer and I'm already seeing things?" Someone asked in a very loud voice, clearly trying to be heard. Emily turned to see who was speaking and saw Lucas.

"No, Lucas you're not seeing things I'm actually here"

"Under what kind of torture?" He said hugging her

"My roommate said that I was too stressed by the finals."

"I have to agree with her on the one, so… how many more minutes until you leave?"

"What do you mean, I got here an hour ago."

"That's already a record, but you're clearly not having fun"

"I'm trying… I'm drinking, talking…"

"Party is about dance, meeting new people, hitting on girls you may never see again, well you're taken, but I'm not, you could help me out" He said looking like a kid

"Like you need any help with that, girls line up after you"

"But I don't want any of those, I'm tired of them, I want someone who doesn't want to be with me because I'm the football star" Emily laughed hard on that

"Way to go Prince Charming" they both laughed, then he turned his hair and stopped

"That girl!" He said looking to a corner on the other side of the room. Emily followed his head and didn't expect to see who she saw, it was Paige wearing a pair of black pants, a red pair of sandals matching her jacket, she was looking like she had come out of a movie. She looked amazing, and nervous. "She doesn't look strange to me though"

"That's Paige, she's in the swimming team"

"Right…" he was clearly lost in his thoughts. She couldn't blame him, the image he was looking at was quite something. "Do you know her? Maybe you could talk to her" he said still looking at her

"Go there by yourself, big guy, you can do it" or she wanted to see it, he could be really good with girls but when he wanted things to work out he would mess up everything.

From the other side Paige so this guy walking in her direction, and she thought that he was the guy her mother said, but when he was getting close to her someone called her first

"Paige?" A guy asked showing up by her side

"Yeah?" She said a little confused, she turned her head to the guy and when she turned back the first guy was gone

"Too late" a frustrated Lucas said to Emily, who quickly turned her head to look at Paige that was clearly uncomfortable talking to whoever that guy was. He was talking and gesticulating a lot while she was with her arms crossed and looking around like searching for something, when suddenly a very confident Luca appeared from behind Paige. Emily so wished to be a fly so she could hear what they were talking.

"Here's your drink" Lucas said to a very confused Paige, but she could use the distraction. "What were we talking about?" What was HE talking about was a better question in Paige's mind

"I don't remember, but…" She had no idea what to do "This is Mark" pointing to the other guy who was trying to understand what was going on "and Mark this is…"

"… Lucas" Lucas quickly said. They gave each other a cold hand shake, and all Paige knew was that she wanted to get out of there really soon. She kept looking around to see if she could find any familiar face.

"Excuse me boys, but I found a fried that I really need to talk to" She said quickly leaving her position when she saw Emily next to a counter.

"Save me" She told Emily who didn't understand a thing.

"From…." She started

"From those boys over there, please, just tell they're not coming here" Paige looked desperate.

"Two boys fighting over you and you want to get away?" Emily tried to understand, it was funny to see Paige losing control like that, she was always so serious.

"They're not fighting… just forget it" and she left. Talking to Emily was a bad idea, they weren't friends, not even close.

"Ok then" Emily said to herself since Paige had left so fast. That was very weird, if she didn't know Paige at least a little she would've thought that Paige was crazy. Anyway she took a look around and saw people dancing but she didn't want to dance, she couldn't drink any more that she already did considering she was driving. It has passed four or almost five hours since she arrived, there was no way she could stick around any longer, so she started looking for Jessica to let her know that she would be going home. The problem was: How could she find Jessica? She tried the phone of course Jessica wouldn't pick it up, she went to the back of the house to see if she were there but there was only one girl there and she wasn't Jessica. She went back and paused, thought for a second and looked at the girl again, it was Paige, was she still hiding from the boys?

Sitting outside the house Paige was looking at the starts hoping not to be found buy those guys.

"Paige?" Emily nearly made Paige have a heart attack

"Gosh, you scared me" She said after turning and realizing it was Emily

"Sorry, didn't mean to" Emily didn't know why she went over to Paige, there was nothing to talk about, but she was looking so sad, and for she felt the need to comfort her, for no reason she could think of. "So I'm guessing neither of the boys found you right?" She tried to start a conversation

"Thank God they didn't" She said, she didn't know what Emily had to do with that, but there was no reason not to answer her, at least she wasn't looking crazy like she was at the pool. "You're more…." Paige was trying to find the words

"normal?" Emily guessed, although she wasn't sure it was correct.

"That would work, yesterday at the pool you were…"

"crazy?" She guessed again, she couldn't help it, it was kind of fun

"Are you going to finish all my sentences?"

"Right, sorry, keep going"

"I wouldn't say crazy, but you're strange" She had trouble finding words

"Let's just say, it wasn't a good moment, I was much stressed and I ended up there"

"It makes sense, the pool is always a nice place to relax"

"but it felt weird because I haven't done that in a very long time"

"Maybe you were just missing it"

"Maybe" It wasn't a good topic for Emily to talk about, she didn't like talking about things she didn't understand. "I know it's none of my business but why are you trying so hard to avoid the guys, I don't know about the blond one but Lucas, the dark haired one, was pretty impressed by you." She couldn't help asking, she wanted to know.

"You know him?" Paige asked, was it only impression or Emily had something to do with that scene earlier?

"Yeah" She laughed at the surprised face Paige managed to make, "He's actually a good friend of mine, we have a couple of classes together"

"Can you tell me what he was doing there, talking to me like he knew me? 'Cause I have never talked to him in my life" She said, she was actually having a nice time talking to Emily. Back in high school Emily was very close to her three friends, it was almost impossible to see one of them without another girl from the group, Paige wanted to have a group like that but she wasn't really good with groups.

"He was going to talk to you when the blond guy appeared and he left but then I think He thought that you weren't interested in the guy so he tried a move, that's my best guess, knowing him like a I do." she believed it was possible that Lucas thought that.

"Why would he do that?" Paige honestly didn't know why a guy would do that.

"Seriously?" Emily couldn't believe Paige didn't know "Because he was into you, isn't that obvious?"

"But he doesn't know me"

"I'm not an expert in guys but I think it doesn't matter"

"Do you think so?" Right she was gay, Paige had forgotten about it at some point in this conversation. She also had a girlfriend, where was she then?

"Paige?" Emily snapped her finger in front of Paige's face

"Sorry, hum… didn't you say you have a girlfriend? Is she here?" She wasn't supposed to ask that

"Yes I do, but she's working and she doesn't live near here so…" There was no need to finish it

"That sucks" A long distance relationship between women, relationship between women "women." That last thought came louder than it should've been, Paige's thoughts were making her feel dizzy

"Paige, are you ok?" Emily started to worry, what was it about women?

"I'm fine, I think it's time for me to go home" That was the best option, for some reason she wasn't being able to control what she was saying, maybe the beer she drank earlier had a late effect on her

"How did you come here? Do you need a ride?" Emily couldn't let her go alone, not at this time

"I took a cab, I can take another"

"No way, I'll take you" Emily firmly said

"Why are you doing this?" That question wasn't supposed to be asked, she seriously needed to stop doing that.

"Doing what?" Emily didn't understand what Paige was talking about, she just offered a ride

"Being nice" Since she started, might as well finish it

"Why wouldn't I?" Emily just couldn't help it, she liked being around Paige

"We were part of the same team and we never talked for more than five minutes" It came out harder than in her head. Paige had no idea why she was saying all those things, but they were true

"Ouch! I think we just didn't have much to talk about back then" Emily tried to explain, but the truth was that she didn't know why they didn't talk back then.

"Do we have much to talk about now?" Paige was shocked by her own words "I'm sorry that came out wrong… I'm gonna go now" She turned to leave but when she did it she saw mark and turned back as fast as she could hoping he hadn't seen her.

"What about the ride now?" Emily saw that Paige turned back because of the blond guy from earlier, and she needed to end that conversation

"Where's the car?" Paige asked, already walking in the direction of the parking lot.


	5. Start again

**A/N: First of all, I'm really sorry for the late chapter, it was never my intention to take longer than a week to update the story but I got too many things to do at the same time . Thanks for the reviews again, it's great to know that there are people reading this. I'm not sure I put all the things I wanted in this chapter, so if feel like there's something missing just tell me ok?**

Chapter 5: Start again

Emily couldn't help but laugh at the desperate way Paige looked at her when she saw that guy, the laugh got harder when Paige suddenly took her hand to take her to her car, the thing was that her car was on the other side but she didn't get the chance to this to her. "hum…. Paige…"

"We talk in the car" Paige said, she just wanted to get out of this party, that guy couldn't stop talking about his mother and how he thought that her mother was great too, it was like if he got along with her mother then she would like him, so clueless of him. It was a short talk but enough to make Paige want to go away. All she could think of was getting out of there.

"The car is on the other way" Emily managed to say pointing to the opposite direction "and I also have to find a friend that came with me, so she maybe be counting on me to go home" Emily said 'where the hell was Jessica?' Emily wondered

"Can I wait next to your car then?" Paige knew that sounded too much but she really wanted to get out of there and Mark was getting closer, she pretended to see him because he cleared saw her.

"Sure, it's in front of the house, a little to the left" Emily was totally lost but she couldn't forget about what Paige said, it was almost like she'd done something to her back in high school, but she didn't do anything, at least nothing that she remembered. She saw Paige walking very fast, trying not to run, toward the direction she had told her. Emily rolled her eyes she couldn't believe Paige would act this way, so childish, run away from a boy like this playing hide and seek. Emily was walking around not sure where to go to find Jessica when a girl stumbled on her. Emily wasn't sure whose fault was, she wasn't paying any attention but girl seemed to be pretty drunk and strangely familiar

"Jessica" Emily yelled when she realized the drunken girl was actually her friend

"Hi Emily!" She tried to look like she was ok, but she couldn't fool Emily, actually she couldn't fool anyone, she sucked at pretending and she knew that.

"End of party for you" She said grabbing Jessica's arm to take her to the car. "I'm giving a friend a ride and after that we'll go home"

"I don't want to go home just yet" She made a face just like a kid would make when ordered to stop playing. She didn't even realize but she causing quite a scene at the party and Emily couldn't wait to get out of the center of attention, she hated that.

"Good thing I don't care, now let's go" because Jessica was drunk she didn't have much of a strength which allowed Emily to be able to take her outside, everyone looked for a couple of minutes but soon changed focus.

Emily couldn't believe Jessica got that drunk, it wasn't like her to do that, they would talk about that in the morning, right now she just wanted to get to the car.

"Finally" Paige said when Emily arrived trying to make a drunken girl to walk straight.

"Are you really hiding behind my car?" Emily asked 'That girl must have serious problems, maybe she is bipolar' Emily thought while opening the car.

"Who is she?" Paige asked when helping Emily with the girl who wasn't really making things easy.

"Jessica my roommate, I would introduce you two, but she'll probably forget about it" When Jessica was in totally in the car, Emily and Paige entered the car, and Emily started driving to Paige's house.

Paige was totally ashamed of her behavior, seemed like now away from the party and in Emily's car everything sounded so small, what was she thinking? First the cold action from earlier when she said that they have nothing to talk about, it was true but she didn't have to say it like she did, they weren't friends but that was ok, Emily didn't need a reason to act nice right? That was she was doing acting nice, and then running from that guy like an idiot, he was a horrible company but again no reason to run and what about the other guy, Emily's friend, he looked nice but she didn't know how to act along.

Emily was lost in her thoughts as well, she was still trying to understand what Paige said but she didn't know if she could ask her, she wouldn't sleep if she didn't ask

"Paige…" Emily started "…. About what you were saying, what did you mean?" But she didn't get an answer, when Emily looked at her, what she was avoiding to do, she saw that Paige didn't listen, she was looking out the window and with the moon right up in the sky, Emily almost froze to the image, so beautiful, the hair was half illumined by the moonlight and her eyes, her eyes were shinning, it was almost like Emily could see the moon in her eyes, when Paige turned and looked back, Emily couldn't move, at least the moon wasn't in her eyes anymore, that made her look less perfect. Paige didn't move as well, and Emily was wondering why but at the same time she couldn't stop looking, she had to look closer, she noticed that Paige raised an eyebrow but had a curious look on her face…

"Girl! You have a girlfriend!" A very drunk and half awake Jessica yelled in the backseat.

If they weren't using the seatbelts they would've jumped because of Jessica. Emily went back to driving - in some place between looking at Paige and leaning to her, for some reason she still had to find out, she stopped driving and didn't even notice – she did that faster than she would've blinked, and Paige turned her head so fast that she actually felt a little pain in her neck. If it weren't for Jessica the rest of the trip would've been more silent than a funeral, she kept talking about a thousand of things that didn't make sense but Emily and Paige were glad for that, it made the air less heavier.

"We're here" Emily said without turning her head

"here where?" asked a confused Jessica "Did we move?" Paige smiled at the comment

"My house" Paige explained to Jessica "Thanks for the ride"

"I could use a bathroom" Jessica said making Emily more ashamed than she already was, she would never ever go out with Jessica anymore.

"Jessica!" Emily called her attention "We'll be home really soon"

"No, it's ok, you can use mine" Paige said and the three of them left the car, Jessica was almost able to walk straight and all Emily could think about was how much she wanted to kill her. "It's down the hall to the left" Jessica was already on the way when Paige finished the sentence. Things couldn't be weirder between her and Emily, she had to say something.

"Sorry" They said at the same time looking awkwardly at each other with a weak smile, they both took a breath and then Paige made a sigh letting Emily know she wanted her to go first

"I'm sorry for Jessica, it's not like her to be like this, I swear" She started with the easy part "and also for…" how could she say this "staring at you, I really don't know why I did that" She did it, she finished the sentence, she was really proud of herself.

"My turn" Paige started "For acting like a weirdo for the past couple of hours, I guess"

"I think we can say that it was a weird night" She said unsure of her own words.

"Do you think we can start again?" Paige asked leaning up against the wall

"I would really like that" Emily felt such a relief, but there was something she couldn't forget. "Can I just ask one question?"

"Shoot" Paige answered hoping not to be the type of question that you don't have an answer.

"Did I ever do something to you back in high school?" She had to ask, this has been bugging her since Paige said they didn't have anything to talk about, she said in a way like they have never talked, but Emily felt like she sounded almost ignored by her.

"No, no no, why are you asking this?" Of course Emily had never done anything to her, really anything, not even have a conversation for more than 5 words, but I was like she was asking if she ever hurt her but she haven't

"You make it sound back there like you… forget it, you said no and that's it" Maybe it was her mind playing tricks, maybe that was Paige's way of talking.

"So start again?" Paige was glad to stop talking about that, she didn't know why she acted that way

"Hi, I'm Emily" Emily said stretching her hand to Paige

"I'm Paige, nice to meet you Emily" Paige played along

"Nice to meet you too Paige" They both laughed and headed to the couch "So… what do you do?" She asked right after sitting

"I'm an engineer student, though I'm not sure which area of it I'm going to follow and you?" Paige would have never taken Emily for a Math fan but then again they never talked

"I'm a law student and a part of the swimming team, do you like to swim?" It sound like a question someone would make when talking for the first time, but it didn't make it sound less dumb, the answer was easy

"Yeah, I enjoy it, I don't swim very often but I do like it"

"Would you like to go to the pool?" If Paige remembered well Emily got pretty amazed there

"That wouldn't put you in any trouble, would it?" Emily turned by the sound of Jessica's footsteps coming from the bathroom, hearing that actually made her feel sad, this conversation was being very nice and easy, simple questions and simple answers

"Can we go home now?" Jessica sounded like a baby falling asleep "Strange girl, thank you for letting me use the bathroom" Paige laughed, apparently she was starting to get sober, it will be easier to put her in the car this time.

"No problem" She tried to cover her laugh

"Yep, we can go now, thanks for everything PAIGE" Emily said loud enough to make Jessica listen. "Sorry again for her" Emily said when they reached the door and Jessica was half way to the car.

"Her being drunk is not your fault, and about the last question, it would only get me in trouble if people find out" She said in a suggestive way

"Then we can arrange that" She turned when Jessica honked the car's horn to get her attention "we'll probably bump into each other on campus, so… see ya" Emily said walking away

"Same bench?" Paige tried to say loud enough for Emily to hear

"Bye Paige"

'Bye Paige' was that a yes? Paige thought, whatever. Paige closed the door and headed to her bedroom she had training in the morning and something was telling her that sleep wasn't going to be something easy.


End file.
